After three years since the series began, Young Justice has return in the form of the complete first season Blu-Ray set. This new releases comes with all 26 episodes of the short lived, but much beloved WB/ DC cartoon. The good news is, Young Justice is just as fantastic as we all remember it was when it debuted, the bad news is the lack of features on the new complete season set leaves a lot to be desired.

Young Justice was a 2011 action adventure cartoon, it’s animated by WB Animation and produced by DC Animations. Season one is currently available on DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital distribution channels.

I’m not much for a comic book reader, while I will occasionally read a comic here and there & have just recently gotten into reading manga. Though, one thing that I always enjoyed even without having much knowledge of the source material was animated cartoons starring the cast of characters from DC Comics, as well as Marvel, albeit to a lesser extent. Young Justice is no different, having previously felt an empty void of superhero cartoons left by the 2006 cancellation of Teen Titans (which was rebooted as Teen Titans GO! in 2013), Young Justice came about to fill that void, and it did so fantastically.

The Young Justice League as interpreted in Young Justice.

THE GOOD: Greg Weisman has proven time and time again that he’s a genius when it comes to superhero and action oriented cartoons and comics. With his original creation of Disney’s The Gargoyles which was known for its fairly dark tone compared to most 90s cartoons aimed at central, Weisman continued to build his resume most recently with the aforementioned Young Justice and the forthcoming Star Wars: Rebels series.

The first meeting of Superboy.

Young Justice, was again fairly dark compared to the most recent DC cartoons at the time, almost on a level of which that hadn’t been seen since Batman: The Animated Series. The series was extremely character driven with a strong per season attached to the overall direction of the show. It was also fairly mature and could have easily passed for a PG-13/TV-14 run on Adult Swim, perhaps it would have done better on the Adult Swim line up in hindsight. Still for fans of the Teen Titans cartoon, I’m sure Young Justice held an even more special place in their hearts as it was fairly close to one another in terms of direction and tone.

The team as they are by the final moments of season one.

From Robin’s mistrust in himself as leader, to Superboy feeling inadequate in comparison to Superman, these stories made viewers care for the characters rather than feeling like Young Justice was just another action cartoon. And there was some fairly mature drama involved such as Artemis’s family background and Roy Harper discovering his origin as a clone of the true (now one-armed) Roy Harper. These story elements put Young Justice above other recent WB cartoons.

Superboy and Black Canary.

THE BAD: The only thing bad that can be said about the complete first season of Young Justice is the lack of special features is extremely disappointing. It would have been great to hear some commentary or behind the scenes talk from Greg Weisman, though considering the set was released through the WB Archives line-up it’s not all that surprising that it was nothing but the episodes featured.

Killer Frost as depicted in Young Justice.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Young Justice is one of both WB and Cartoon Network’s greatest in terms of their superhero branch. It’s no wonder that the show holds such a place in the hearts of DC fans. The quality storytelling and action sequences brought a lot of joy, however the Blu-Ray release of the complete first season’s lack of features is very disappointing, hopefully something WB makes note of come the eventual release of the complete second season. Otaku Dome gives Young Justice: The Complete First Season an 86 out of 100.